Under-Occupancy Penalty
Debate between Eilidh Whiteford and Kris Hopkins(10 years, 6 months ago)
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Kris Hopkins
I have great passion for those two areas of our wonderful country, but I cannot bring myself to congratulate those two Governments.
Dr Whiteford
The Minister may not be aware that the Scottish Government have taken on a very ambitious programme of house building in Scotland that far exceeds anything that went before in the devolution era. However, the private sector housing that is coming on stream is significantly more expensive than the housing that people are currently living in, so I do not believe that the policy that we are discussing today is saving any money. I hope that he will be able to say categorically today that it is saving housing benefit costs.
Kris Hopkins
What I will say is that, in my early days in this post, I assure the hon. Lady that if I can learn anything about building more houses, because that is really important to the economy of our country, I shall inquire—